NearTheEars
Well-Known Member
Awesome. Then we were once kinda sorta neighbors. So when can I come visit?
Actually quite close. We lived right outside if Youngstown.
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So, is Unleash the Villains still happening?
- Thread starter HatboxGhost
- Start date
Actually quite close. We lived right outside if Youngstown.
NearTheEars
Well-Known Member
Anyway, sorry to get off topic ...
Traffic: Nightmare if you didn't get there early. We did, close call, though.
Entertainment: Awesome. Concert atmosphere.
Villains: Awesome, especially Oogie and Hades and Meg were great hosts.
Lines: Way long, confusing. So we stayed away.
Fireworks: breathtaking.
Overall: Fantastic experience. Certainly stressful for all CMs and the management who didn't see this coming.
Traffic: Nightmare if you didn't get there early. We did, close call, though.
Entertainment: Awesome. Concert atmosphere.
Villains: Awesome, especially Oogie and Hades and Meg were great hosts.
Lines: Way long, confusing. So we stayed away.
Fireworks: breathtaking.
Overall: Fantastic experience. Certainly stressful for all CMs and the management who didn't see this coming.
Soarin' Over Pgh
Well-Known Member
I'm really having a hard time thinking management didn't see this happening. They announced this event-one of very few they DID announce had of time- months ago. Merchandise, albeit too little of it, was produced and ready...even sold on website. I just can't believe they didn't think this through enough.
My friend is currently at WDw on vacation and picked this week because of the villains event...she booked a week after it was announced. However after arriving at DHS she ended up leaving within a few hours due to overwhelming crowds.
I think I'm going to end up giving her the shirt I bought from the website, as she was rather sad she couldn't find anything commemorating the event when she was there.
My friend is currently at WDw on vacation and picked this week because of the villains event...she booked a week after it was announced. However after arriving at DHS she ended up leaving within a few hours due to overwhelming crowds.
I think I'm going to end up giving her the shirt I bought from the website, as she was rather sad she couldn't find anything commemorating the event when she was there.
71jason
Well-Known Member
It shows how out of touch they truly are. Other than Black Friday, stuff like this just doesn't happen at The Gap, or wherever they trained.
Maleficent88
New Member
Let me just say that I was not entirely happy with the event as a whole. Yes, the fireworks were awesome, but the 2.5 hours I waited in line for Maleficent was just ridiculous. Granted, I had a friend with me and we were in line chatting it up with this adorable 7 year old girl who came with her parents just to meet Oogie Boogie,so that part of the experience was fantastic. Around 12:00 AM, the management comes up and tells us in the line (We were almost there, directly across from 50's Prime Time) saying that the line has been cut off and that we need to leave. There were a lot of protestors, myself included, saying that we wouldn't leave. The family behind me said they just want to see Oogie Boogie and I said I wanted to see Maleficent, that's it. The little girl ended up crying and the family left because the managers would not do anything to help her meet her favorite villain, and they did the same for me.
Although, I did tell them that I would unhappily settle for a Maleficent autograph card. Well, I was able after a few minutes to move up so I could at least see Maleficent take a picture with a guest who attempted to hug her (oh, that was hilarious). I asked the same rude manager (Roy was his name) for that autograph card. He looked at me, looked at his card stack, and rudely said "I RAN OUT OF THEM!!!" and walked away.
This event, as a whole, was very poorly planned, and I for one was not entirely thrilled with how management handled the meet and greets. What they should've done is what a previous poster mentioned: have duplicate villains on the Streets of America, that way crowds are dispersed more easily and lines would not have been as long. I'm sorely disappointed that I didn't get to meet Maleficent as I can't afford to go to MNSSHP right now. GR got a lengthy complaint from me, both in e-mail form and in person, and I hope that something is done to rectify this situation in the future.
Although, I did tell them that I would unhappily settle for a Maleficent autograph card. Well, I was able after a few minutes to move up so I could at least see Maleficent take a picture with a guest who attempted to hug her (oh, that was hilarious). I asked the same rude manager (Roy was his name) for that autograph card. He looked at me, looked at his card stack, and rudely said "I RAN OUT OF THEM!!!" and walked away.
This event, as a whole, was very poorly planned, and I for one was not entirely thrilled with how management handled the meet and greets. What they should've done is what a previous poster mentioned: have duplicate villains on the Streets of America, that way crowds are dispersed more easily and lines would not have been as long. I'm sorely disappointed that I didn't get to meet Maleficent as I can't afford to go to MNSSHP right now. GR got a lengthy complaint from me, both in e-mail form and in person, and I hope that something is done to rectify this situation in the future.
71jason
Well-Known Member
Duplicate villain stations. FastPasses like used at SWW. More villains with individual meet & greets to disperse the crowd. Simply keep a better guest count and use portable swithcbacks to better estimate where the line will have to be cut off. There's many things Ops could have done. The fact they didn't, and didn't even anticipate they would need to, shows how out of touch with reality they are.
(Then again, fans who wait 2.5 hours to snap a photo with a college kid doing cosplay may not have the firmest grip on reality themselves.)
(Then again, fans who wait 2.5 hours to snap a photo with a college kid doing cosplay may not have the firmest grip on reality themselves.)
asianway
Well-Known Member
Roy should be fired and you should demand nothing less than Comp MNSSHP tix as recovery for that total dick move
JimboJones123
Well-Known Member
Seems to me that the 9-5ers in management wiped their collective hands with this thing.
This should have been an all hands on deck event where managers and supervisors around the park were on deck with the power to make some real decisions.
When the average guest can easily tell the meet and greet lines are 2.5-3 hrs long, management should have cut the lines long before fireworks.
Still blows my mind that they treated this like a EMH event.
Itsjust_david
New Member
My wife and I had to go inside the brown derby to the servers bar just to get a drink.
Maleficent88
New Member
I may be 24, but I'm a big kid at heart with a vivid imagination. So what if the villains are all teenagers or adults portraying said character? I LOVE to pretend that they are all so very real. Call me a kid all you want or say I'm out of touch with reality, but as long as I am at WDW, I'm a big kid at heart and no one will ever take that away from me.
I cannot wait to see what GR says in their email back to me.
novawildcat18
Well-Known Member
When an event like this takes place in a park like DHS, there is nothing else to do but wait in line for these characters.
Neph-Neph
Active Member
I was there on Friday during the day. Made the mistake of going to the Boardwalk for dinner. Waited an hour for a Friendship Boat back to DHS (couldn't walk, my grandmother has a bad hip and knees) and saw a picture of the crowds while on the boat. This is when I panicked told my grandmother we were leaving. I was bummed but I would get over it.
Ended up watching Villainy in the Sky from the 3rd floor balcony at Pop Century and got over it. It was an amazing view of the show. It could have used the music but I'll take what I can get to be the only one in 20 or 30 feet watching it instead of have 100s within 20 or 30 feet.
Ended up watching Villainy in the Sky from the 3rd floor balcony at Pop Century and got over it. It was an amazing view of the show. It could have used the music but I'll take what I can get to be the only one in 20 or 30 feet watching it instead of have 100s within 20 or 30 feet.
Traffic was a nightmare. No place to park. They started selling the merchandise two hours before the event, and when people got there expecting to buy limited merchandise, it was sold out. People standing in line to meet the characters had no idea which line they were even in. Even those at Disney regarded the event as a disaster. Very poor planning on Disney's part. (Even though they had months to prepare for the event.)
I'll never understand why when Disney plans a celebration of this magnitude they only have it one day. Why not all week long like other "Limited Time Magic" events. Then they have special merchandise, but only put it in one location, as they did with Animal Kingdom's 15th anniversary and Star Wars Weekends. Three hour wait times just to get into the store are the norm during these events. Why not put the merchandise at several locations so more people can shop at the same time?
For a company that considers efficiency as one of their four keys, they obviously don't have a problem letting people stand in line for several hours at a time just to get a T-shirt or a photograph with a villain. How efficient is that Disney?
I'll never understand why when Disney plans a celebration of this magnitude they only have it one day. Why not all week long like other "Limited Time Magic" events. Then they have special merchandise, but only put it in one location, as they did with Animal Kingdom's 15th anniversary and Star Wars Weekends. Three hour wait times just to get into the store are the norm during these events. Why not put the merchandise at several locations so more people can shop at the same time?
For a company that considers efficiency as one of their four keys, they obviously don't have a problem letting people stand in line for several hours at a time just to get a T-shirt or a photograph with a villain. How efficient is that Disney?
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
Nobody's fault but their own.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Looks like the 9-5 management had the collective idea that it would be a flop while entertainment and anyone paying attention knew this would be a capacity crowd.
Tomorrow would be fun to be a fly on the wall in Dan Cockrell's office. Someone needs to get fired for the operational disaster.
JimboJones123
Well-Known Member
Or maybe a few hundred thousand dollars lost taken out of somebody's paycheck.
JimboJones123
Well-Known Member
Lack of parking staffing did offer an opportunity for many guests off site with tickets and non APs to get free parking for the night. So that is good for the guests. Not so good again for the bottom line.
71jason
Well-Known Member
My new friend behind the Brown Derby bar might disagree.
71jason
Well-Known Member
Theoretically yes. Except I think the number of non-AP, non-CM off-site guests was small enough to probably not matter. Now the loss of food sales, drink sales, merch sales ... and the loss of good will among APs who spent hours in traffic only to not even get into the park ... that's where the real money went down the tubes.
Agreed with PhotoDave a couple downsizings are in order. In addition, this was a wide-spread, well-publicized enough goof I think a corporate mea culpa may be called for.
novawildcat18
Well-Known Member
Let me rephrase then. When you're a 19 year old college program participant, there is nothing else to do but wait in line for characters.